Of course, if you still know where it is (you’d be surprised by how many people don’t know!)
My card, despite saying on the back, “This card is invalid if laminated”, is laminated. My parents did it, long before I ever got my hands on it. And I’m grateful. Even laminated, the edges are wearing down and it looks kind of beat-up. I can’t imagine what it would look like unlaminated.
And over the years (I’m 38!) for all the uses I’ve put it to, no one has ever, ever denied it because it was laminated.
My social security card is very important to me. Since I don’t have a birth certificate, I am always “down” one extra form of ID - I mean, I have a naturalization certificate, but that doesn’t always confer as much weight, so sometimes I have to present both. So I keep my soc on me at all times, hidden away in my purse. It’s been useful.
But I can’t imagine how you could keep it in any kind of good shape without the lamination. This is supposed to be a lifelong document, isn’t it? Do you all just keep it locked away in a safe somewhere?
Mine’s in a folder in a file cabinet. I have a color xerox copy I keep on me, and it’s laminated. They accepted it at the license bureau with no troubles.
I don’t keep it intact. I haven’t had an actual tangible SSN card since I was in college. And nobody has ever asked to see it since then. Thus far, the number alone has always been sufficient.
I keep mine in a folder and only pull it out when I need it.
I’m surprised so many people have said they never need it. My last corporate job had random audits where we had to show our Social Security card to receive our paychecks.
I have a scan of mine that has always been acceptable but I also have an envelope with a physical card in it at home somewhere. Part of my adultolescence to-do list includes finding that envelope and putting it in a fireproof box along with other important docs in the unlikely and unfortunate event that something happens to damage my apartment.
Passports function as both an identifier and a right to work-ifier and a lot of people will use those when they start a new job since it saves them a document.
It’s not in my wallet, and I have never lost a purse or wallet except for once, when I was 19. No one has ever stolen it either (lucky me).
I have my passport, too, but my passport is in the safety deposit box. My license is the enhanced license, so I can cross the Canadian border with it (I live in NY) so I rarely need my passport these days.
I use my passport which is just as acceptable. There’s only been one time in my life I’ve specifically needed to show my SS card, a couple years ago to get a NYS drivers license, and I had to go and get a new one because I lost mine when I was 13.
I didn’t have one for years because of a name issue too bizarre and convoluted to even begin to try and explain. I skated past the need for one - for some kinds of financial accounts, and jobs - by sheer forgery; I scanned my daughter’s and edited it to my information. I finally got the matter sorted out and have a replacement card (and did you know that you are limited to something like five replacements, lifetime?) - that stays pristine by living in a documents folder in the fire safe.
There is no need at all to carry one around. Get it out like a birth certificate or passport when needed.
Mine is in a plastic sleeve in my wallet. It is the original SS card that I got in 1954—it is a little bit worn but is clearly legible. It has printing on it that states it is not to be used as a form of identification. I can’t count the number of times I have had to produce it as a form of ID.